E-commerce discussions move forward among the group of the 71 at the WTO

The group of seventy-one WTO member states that signed the Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce at the Eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference (MC11) met in the week of 16 to 20 April and started to put forward non-papers. The proposals were tabled by Argentina, Colombia, and Costa Rica (JOB/GC/174); New Zealand (JOB/GC/175); Brazil (JOB/GC/176); Japan (JOB/GC/177); the United States (JOB/GC/178); Singapore (JOB/GC/179); Japan (JOB/GC/180); Russia (JOB/GC/181); and Chinese Taipei (JOB/GC/182) and seek to organise exploratory work and identify potential elements that could form the basis of a future agreement. They express interest in exploring several specific areas, including market access commitments, trade facilitation, consumer protection, and data flows. According to ICTSD, the coalition will reconvene next month and again in June, followed by a stocktaking exercise in July